While my Thanksgiving was far from conventional, I did manage to make a sweet potatoes pie and share it with the Sisters and Marina, but what is more important, I thanked God for a looong list of blessings!
Last Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King, was a more formal day of thanksgiving at Utale II parish.
Shortly after arriving in Malawi, I had learned of several parishes in need of basic liturgical items. Knowing that many American parishes have extras, I sent out a plea (I have gotten really good at shamelessly begging). A friend back home responded by asking the cost of a monstrance and promptly depositing the amount into my bank account. The fun began! How to actually get the monstrance and ciborium to Malawi?
I ordered the monstrance and Ciborium online from an Italian company. They were shipped to the Sacramentine sisters' mother house in Bergamo, and from there travelled in carry-on-luggage with a friend of the sisters who was coming to visit Malawi .
The Friend's of St. Gertrude, a group of women who have left the Sacramentine Sisters, but have stayed connected with them and support their mission of spreading devotion to Jesus in the most holy Eucharist, organized a celebration for the giving of the items. Malawians really like celebrations!
There was a Mass, and after Mass the presentation if the monstrance and Ciborium, but each if the members of the Friend's of St. Gertrude had decided to give what they were able as well. So, along with the monstrance and Ciborium, the Church received a new altar cloth, candles, matches, communion wine, communion wafers made by the sisters, and a mop and bucket (a not so subtle statement by the member who was from Utale😄).
(As a note of explanation, the Church looks very grand and we'll off, but was funded and built by Italians, like so many other beautiful structures and institutions in Malawi, including Our Lady of Lourdes. Sadly, around the Church, which itself has some serious looking cracks, much is in disrepair, like the leper housing, the rectory, and health center. In this case, the disrepair is due largely to the clay soil which expands and contracts with the annual rains.)
All the festivities were followed up by the obligatory celebratory meal. It was a delightful potluck affair with the Friend's of St. Gertrude and representatives of the parish. Everyone thinks I am an amazing cook, because I can make "biscuits," that us cookies.
I am excited for the next event! Thanks to my grand father's dogged perseverance in asking parishes in his area, there is a chalice and ciborium waiting for transport with a visitor from the US. If anyone knows of parishes with an extra monstrance or other liturgical items, please do ask if they would consider donating it. The Friend's of St. Gertrude have a list of parishes that are lacking liturgical vessels, etc and almost any type of liturgical item is needed somewhere or other.
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